Open Your Eyes to Love
by HiighVoltage
Summary: Tokka songfic, set some ten years into the future.


**The song is titled Open Your Eyes (to Love) by LMNT. Apparently its from The Lizzie McGuire Movie. I never watched it, in case anybody's wondering.**

**Disclaimer: I didn't get avatar for christmas. Ah well... my birthday's next week. I might get lucky. I don't own Lizzie McGuire or LMNT either.**

**Open Your Eyes to Love**

The man moved towards the front door, where the sounds of joyful play could be heard.

His wife sat on the doorstep, her face turned in the direction of the boy running in the grass. A small smile crept across her delicate face as the child stumbled, righted himself, and turned to wave at her.

He sat down, watching the sunlight illuminate her beautiful features, and was soon lost in thoughts of the past.

_You've been searching the world to finds true love_

_Looking in all the wrong places_

_When all of the time you've been blind to love_

_As plain as the nose on your faces_

"What's eatin' ya?" she asked, snapping him out of his reverie. He shook his head, clearing it slightly.

"Just thinking," he replied, " about how we got together."

"And?"

"Well, sometimes I wonder who's truly the blind one. I mean, I journeyed all the way to the Northern Water Tribe, visited the Air Temples, traveled around the Earth Kingdom, including Omashu and Ba Sing Se, sneaked into the Fire Nation and invaded its palace. That's practically the whole world, isn't it? And yet, in the end, I realized that the girl I loved was sitting beside me all the time on Appa's back."

"Yeah, I took you long enough to realize that."

_It's here, it's now_

_Open your eyes and see it_

_Right here, right now_

_Open your eyes to love_

He loved her, even though she made him cook _and _do the dishes ("I'm _blind!_ What if I hurt myself?"), even though she hardly, if ever, told him she loved him, even though she sometimes woke up cranky and yelled at him for no reason. She appeared cold and aloof, but he knew that, deep down, she cared.

He needed her, and she needed him.

_You've been down on yourself thinking some things are wrong_

_Wondering why love has never found you_

_Don't you know it's been here all along?_

_If only you'd look around you_

"You know, I used to be so jealous of Suki. Yue too, even though I didn't know her. I used to think that they were so lucky to be your girlfriend," she commented quietly.

"Really?" He tried (and failed) to hide his surprise, even though she couldn't see it anyway.

"Not anymore, though," she continued, " after all, you were only ever their boyfriend. But you're my husband."

"Aww… you say the sweetest things sometimes…"

He bent forward to kiss her, but she shoved him away with a playful smirk.

"Would you rather I started punching your arm and calling you Snoozles again?"

"And you always ruin them!" He pouted in mock anger.

_It's here, it's now_

_Open your eyes and see it_

_Right here, right now_

_Open your eyes to love_

She loved him, even though he _always _forgot his chores, even though he wasn't as good a kisser as he imagined himself to be, even though his incessant snoring tortured her sensitive ears at night. He was a doofus, really, but he was _her_ doofus.

She needed him, and he needed her.

_Love has been right by your side_

_Oh, so close that you couldn't see_

_If love could speak it would shout to the sky_

_I've always been here, I always will be_

"Toph?"

"Yeah?"

"Umm… I was wondering when you actually started having a crush on me."

"I can't remember anymore. That was, like, ten years ago! Why does that matter, anyway?"

"I bet it was when you heard me rooting for you in the Earth Rumble IV," he teased, " you were so smitten with me, you ran away from home to be with me."

"Fat chance, Sokka. Besides, you were rooting for The Boulder," she scoffed. "Twinkletoes told me. Anyway, what about you? When did you fall in love with me?"

He was silent for several moments.

"Y'know, I think I was in love with you the whole time. I just never realized that I felt that way."

She couldn't help the warm feeling that bubbled within her chest, even though the words sounded so cliché.

_I'm here, I'm now_

_Open your eyes and see_

_Right here, right now_

_Open your eyes to love_

"Remember the day we got married?" he asked abruptly.

"Of course," she giggled, "you nearly cried when we exchanged our vows."

He scowled, having spent the last few years trying to live down that particularly embarrassing moment.

"I knew we shouldn't have invited Aang," he grumbled, trying to change the subject and salvage what was left of his pride.

"At least he waited till we kissed before he started a food fight," she giggled again, "and Sparky accidentally set the tablecloth on fire after he was hit on the face with cake."

"Some Fire Lord he is." The corners of his mouth twitched. "Katara had to put it out with the fruit punch. Then she soaked him in it, remember?"

They laughed together.

"You know, the wedding _was_ officially a disaster…" She said vaguely, gazing into the distance.

"Yeah, it was," he replied, "but seeing you in that dress kinda made up for that."

Again, the warm, bubbly feeling rose from her chest, and she could not prevent faint blotches of pink from appearing on her cheeks.

_Open your eyes…_

_Open your mind to love_

_Open your heart to love_

He snaked an arm around her waist, pulling her closer, as she leant against him, resting her head on her shoulders, and together they turned to watch their son as he bounced around laughing, basking in the warm caress of the evening sun.

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**A/N: no prizes for guessing why Toph wakes up cranky! The song and the idea popped into my head one night. It really seems perfect for Tokka to me. Everytime i listen to the song i kinda get this picture of Toph clinging onto Sokka on board Appa.**

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